Microsoft offers employees three months additional parental leave

American technology organisation Microsoft is offering extended leave benefits to all of its 150,000 employees who are working parents, to support them during the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic.

Effective immediately, the 12-week Paid Pandemic School and Childcare Closure Leave benefit will give employees three months of extra parental leave. This new addition to Microsoft’s benefits package has been introduced to alleviate stress for its employees, giving them more time to home school their children due to recent closures.

Microsoft is encouraging other employers to follow suit and offer similar enhanced parental leave benefits to support its employees during the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic.

A spokesperson at Microsoft said: “We added an additional leave option to give our employees greater flexibility and time off as they face extended school closures: the 12-week Paid Pandemic School and Childcare Closure Leave. This benefit may be taken on a continuous, reduced, or intermittent basis – for example, it could be used to take leave for 1-2 days per week while remotely working the rest.”